[WSBARP] HOA Fine Schedules

Fri Apr 15 12:26:35 PDT 2022

I will share from my personal experience having been on my Condo board and
then again on my board at my single-family home community HOA.

For the condo, we were a small condo in the Eastlake neighborhood of
seattle. No amenities other than common elevator, hallays, lobby, and two
level garage. We had no community room, hot tubs, decks etc.  As such, our
dues were truly limited to our operational expenses that every condo
building has with very little wiggle room.  Then came the great
recession and our fine structure for failing to pay dues was $10, with no
escalation. The original president of the Association basically took that
as one of the easiest creditors to stiff and refused to pay for several
months at a time and then just say the $50-90 fine as interest.  We put a
stop to that. Failure to pay dues was $150 fine, then $500, then $750 and
by the third time it was written into the rules that we would seek
lien/foreclosure. We had to make it such that we were not the ones who were
being damaged by his choice not to pay our particular bill and the only way
that would happen was to be worse than credit card interest.

Similar situation when I came to my new home in 2013, it was a brand new
developement, still under developer control. Sadly, there were ZERO
penalties for violation of the rules, so the new board had to create them
once it was turned over. Now with 164 owners in a 2.2 mile long development
- we were faced with almost everyone following the rules but now its more
personal. The issues are specifically tied to out of pocket expenses - such
as house or fence paint because the developer used a cheap quality and in
less than 10 years of sun exposure, the buildings are starting to look bad.
The issue, however, comes to the greater good of the community and now that
homes are being sold for over a million (not what they originally went for)
there is an expectation that the community will maintain the standards. As
such, similar fee structure is in place where it is more painful for
someone to get a fine than it is to either climb on the roof and spread the
zinc powder or call someone to do it for them.

The end of my message is this:
1) Have a reasonable fee structure for your community in the hopes that
owner compliance will occur rather than the fight over the rules
2) Have a clear and delineated policy for when something will be referred
out for lien/foreclosure and then stick by it.

*Brent Williams-Ruth* (pronouns: he/him)
*Attorney-At-Law*

*Law Offices of Brent Williams-Ruth, **a division of BWR Consulting, PLLC*

*Physical Address: 500 S 336th Street, Suite 214; Federal Way, WA 98003*

***EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY** All mail sent through the USPS should be sent to
the following address: **PO BOX 3319; Federal Way, WA 98063 *

Office/Scheduling Phone: (253) 285-7751

Direct: (253) 285-7453

e-mail <Brent at Williams-RuthLaw.com> / website
<http://www.williams-ruthlaw.com/> / facebook
<http://www.facebook.com/bwrlaw> /

On Fri, Apr 15, 2022 at 11:59 AM Shaun Watchie Perry <
shaunwperry at swp-law.com> wrote:

> Please share with the list as I too am looking for some guidance on fines.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Shaun
> ---
> *Shaun Watchie Perry  | Attorney at Law *
> *Law Office of  Shaun Watchie Perry*
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> On 2022-04-15 11:31 am, Annie Fitzsimmons wrote:
>
> Counsel - An HOA wants to adopt a fine schedule for violations of the
> CC&Rs.  Do any of you have any sample fine schedules from associations you
> represent that you are willing to share?
>
> Thank you!  Annie
>
> Annette T. Fitzsimmons P.S.
> P.O. Box 430
> Belfair, WA 98528
>
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